Design of novel cyanovirin-N variants by modulation of binding dynamics through distal mutations

We develop a computational approach to identify distal residues that allosterically modulate the dynamics of binding sites by combining dynamic coupling with statistical analysis of co-evolution. Putative mutants of these predicted allosteric sites are subjected to Adaptive BP-Dock docking tool for binding analysis. Here, we apply this method to a small lectin, Cyanovirin-N (CV-N), that selectively binds to dimannose. Our computational method points out mutations on I34, that is 16A away from binding site can modulate binding. Experimental characterization of I34 mutants confirms that I34Y increases affinity towards dimannose, while I34K completely abolish binding. The increased affinity is not due to changes in the binding region, which are conserved in the crystal structure. However, ITC analysis reveals an opposite contribution of TDS (negative in WT, and positive in I34Y) and suggests that modulation of dynamics (i.e., dynamic allostery) is responsible for the change in binding affinity. Our results point to a novel approach to identify and substitute distal sites, guiding the mutational landscape in glycan-binding proteins to improve binding affinity.